Quote Originally Posted by EasyT
They're shady ass companies that make up their own rules and should be avoided. It's as simple as that. They can bump your minimum payment whenever they choose, jack your rate to 29% for no legitimate reason, and so on. If you've never had this garbage happen to you, you're lucky...so far.
I'm not sure how interest rates and minimum payments are relevant if the intent is to pay off your balance in full every month and you deal with reputable credit card companies. But hey, if that's your personal choice, no prob. Some people just don't like borrowing money, even for 30 days. It's not ideal but I guess it's understandable for some.

Quote Originally Posted by EasyT
The 6 month is an emergency fund. It's just going to sit in some low-interest money-market type account, and will be immediately available in case you lose your job, get hurt, wreck your car, decide to have a baby, or whatever. Odds are some day you will need it. Life happens. Be ready for it.
Yeah, life does happen. Often. So, if your priority will always be to keep this 6-month fund topped up because you have to dip into it from time to time, you'll find it very difficult to make investments that earn you the most money, allowing compound interest to do its thing over the maximum amount of time. The opportunity cost of choosing to "save" at 1 to 2% over investing at 9% is huge. In poker terms, both situations have positive expected value, but you want to choose the action that maximizes your EV and isn't necessarily only +EV. I don't mind the suggestion of having a cushion, but 6-months is massive for a young person, a young single person in particular. If you lost your job for whatever reason, are you really going to keep up your current standard of living, requiring 6-months of today's expenses? And about the other possible disaster scenarios like smashing up your car or leg or a tree falling on your house, this is what insurance is for and where insurance doesn't cover you, these are the sorts of emergencies are what low-interest lines of credit (mine is 5.5%) are for (and what parents are for, if you're lucky enough). Yes, in the case of lines of credit, you will end up paying interest but in all but the most extreme cases, the positive effect of compound interest on your investments over the long run will exceed the interest you pay on short term lines of credit.

I guess I'm kind of a life-nit but that sort of cushion is way too nitty even for me.

I don't want to come off like I'm trashing your choices. I do think if you found a system that works for you, that's great and preferable to not thinking about money at all. But understand that systems don't always make you the most money and that's all I'm saying here. You've made a positive choice but not the one that will make you the most money. It's preferable that people understand what makes and costs them money instead of just putting faith in someone else's system and following rules.